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What
is the job of the Circulatory System?
The Circulatory
System is responsible for
transporting materials throughout the entire body. It
transports nutrients, water, and oxygen to your billions
of body cells and carries away wastes such as carbon
dioxide that body cells produce. It is an amazing
highway that travels through your entire body connecting
all your body cells.
Parts
of the Circulatory System
The circulatory System is divided into three major
parts:
- The Heart
- The Blood
- The Blood Vessels
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The
Heart
The Heart
is an amazing organ. The heart beats about 3 BILLION
times during an average lifetime. It is a muscle about
the size of your fist. The heart is located in the center
of your chest slightly to the left. It's job is to pump
your blood and keep the blood moving throughout your
body.
It is your job to keep your heart
healthy and there are three main things you need to
remember in order to keep your heart healthy.
- Exercise on a regular basis.
Get outside and play. Keep that body moving (walk,
jog, run, bike, skate, jump, swim).
- Eat Healthy. Remember the Food
Pyramid and make sure your eating your food from the
bottom to top.
- Don't Smoke! Don't Smoke! Don't
Smoke! Don't Smoke! Don't Smoke!
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The
Blood
The blood is an amazing substance
that is constantly flowing through our bodies.
- Your blood is pumped by your
heart.
- Your blood travels through
thousands of miles of blood vessels right within your
own body.
- Your blood carries nutrients,
water, oxygen and waste products to and from your body
cells.
- A young person has about a
gallon of blood. An adult has about 5
quarts.
- Your blood is not just a red
liquid but rather is made up of liquids, solids and
small amounts of oxygen and carbon
dioxide.
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Blood
Cells
- Red
Blood Cells
- Red Blood
Cells are responsible
for carrying oxygen and carbon dioxide. Red Blood
Cells pick up oxygen in the lungs and transport it to
all the body cells. After delivering the oxygen to the
cells it gathers up the carbon dioxide(a waste gas
produced as our cells are working) and transports
carbon dioxide back to the lungs where it is removed
from the body when we exhale(breath out). There are
about 5,000,000 Red Blood Cells in ONE drop of
blood.
- White
Blood Cells (Germinators)
- White Blood
Cells help the body
fight off germs. White Blood Cells attack and destroy
germs when they enter the body. When you have an
infection your body will produce more White Blood
Cells to help fight an infection. Sometimes our White
Blood Cells need a little help and the Doctor will
prescribe an antibiotic to help our White Blood Cells
fight a large scale infection.
- Platelets
- Platelets
are blood cells that help stop bleeding. When we cut
ourselves we have broken a blood vessel and the blood
leaks out. In order to plug up the holes where the
blood is leaking from the platelets start to stick to
the opening of the damaged blood vessels. As the
platelets stick to the opening of the damaged vessel
they attract more platelets, fibers and other blood
cells to help form a plug to seal the broken blood
vessel. When the platelet plug is completely formed
the wound stops bleeding. We call our platelet plugs
scabs.
Back
to Contents - Plasma
- Plasma
is the liquid part of
the blood. Approximately half of your blood is made of
plasma. The plasma carries the blood cells and other
components throughout the body. Plasma is made in the
liver.
Where are
the blood cells made?
The Red Blood Cells, White Blood Cells and Platelets
are made by the bone marrow. Bone marrow is a soft tissue
inside of our bones that produces blood cells.
The
Blood Vessels
In class we talked about three
types of blood
vessels:
- Arteries
- Capillaries
- Veins
-
- Arteries
- Arteries
are blood vessels that carry oxygen rich blood AWAY
from the heart. Remember, A A Arteries Away, A A
Arteries Away, A A Arteries Away.
- Capillaries
- Capillaries
are tiny blood vessels as thin or thinner than the
hairs on your head. Capillaries connect arteries to
veins. Food substances(nutrients), oxygen and wastes
pass in and out of your blood through the capillary
walls.
- Veins
- Veins
carry blood back toward your heart.
Back
to Contents - AMAZING
FACTS
- One drop of
blood contains a half a drop
of plasma, 5 MILLION Red Blood Cells, 10
Thousand White Blood Cells and 250 Thousand
Platelets.
- You have thousands of miles of
blood vessels in your body. "Bill Nye the Science Guy"
claims that you could wrap
your blood vessels around the equator
TWICE!
- Keep your heart healthy...it's
going to have to beat about 3
BILLION times during your lifetime!
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FANTASTIC
FUN FACTS!!!
This information will help you find answers to questions about how your heart, blood and blood vessels work.
